Mains Power Off - How to handle Inverter

Ageing_Stick_Insect

I'm having a kitchen fitted next week which will involve the electrics being switched off at some point. Maybe just sockets but more likely the mains switch will need turning off.

Do I need to shut-down the inverter beforehand or not? I did it last year when the meter was swapped out for a new one. Do I need to do the same if the mains is killed for an hour or two?

Thanks.

tunnel

Air on the side of caution I'd say and shut it down via the isolator Ray, at least its fully isolated and can't cause any damage(to trician or electrics).

Ectophile

Inverters are supposed to shut down within 5 seconds if the power supply is turned off (and it's usually a lot less than that). But it's safest just to switch off at the isolator that should have been installed at a convenient location.

The inverter will automatically fire up again within a few minutes once you turn everything back on again.

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Thanks chaps. I have to shut down both the AC and DC side. There are instructions taped to the inverter so hopefully I won't !!!!!! anything up.

I'm hoping the power won't need turning off multiple times.

EricMears

Does your kitchen fitter really need to switch all power to the house off ? I'd have thought he/she only needs to turn off the individual circuit(s) being worked on - probably one (or two) circuit(s) for cooker (or oven & hob) and another one (possibly two but that would be unusual) for sockets in the kitchen. I can't see any reason why the circuit to the inverter can't stay on all day - unless of course you're having new wiring right back to consumer unit in which case the whole CU might need to be turned off for a few minutes.

But even if the whole house does have to be disconnected, there's no real need to do anything special to the inverter circuit. If you had a sudden power cut followed (sooner or later) by restoration the inverter ought to take it in its stride. Try ringing up your DNO and telling them you'll need half an hour's notice of any future power cuts but don't be surprised when they laugh at you.

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Hi Eric,

I haven't spoken to the fitters yet. The job starts Monday so I'm just trying to be prepared for any eventually.

I agree with you that all electrics off would be excessive. I have a diagram of what fuses feed each circuit so they can easily isolate the kitchen ones and leave those in the rest of the house alone.

Good point about unexpected power cuts. I did suffer from them a few years ago before the panels were installed but power has been fine since. I'd be amazed if a SolarEdge inverter (or any make come to that) couldn't cope with a power cut.